


The Reason Is You

by Cockadoodledont



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: A Lot Can Happen In Ten Years, End of game spoilers, Feels, Gen, Hurt, end of game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:51:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cockadoodledont/pseuds/Cockadoodledont
Summary: Ten long years pass in the blink of an eye for Noctis, but the world around him has changed drastically. Confused as to why his retainers have taken to fighting their battles separately, he asks the one person he knows will always give him a truthful answer, no matter how much it hurts: Prompto.





	The Reason Is You

**Author's Note:**

> All the feels!!!  
> I titled this before I realized that there is a song by Hoobastank a few years back by the same name that really goes with this whole feel!!! Not a happy ending, but… realistic? It’s what I imagined must have happened when I played the game and Talcott talks about how all three of his old friends were off fighting separate battles around the world.  
> One of the few times I will ever write something sad.

It was a long night, and it had been an even longer time since he had disappeared inside the crystal. Ten whole years, to be exact. It was still hard to comprehend just what happened. That the people he use to fight with were older was one thing, but that he had aged too was… weirder.

  
Noctis wished he could ignore the way his old friends smiled with each other when he was looking in their direction, then quickly pulled apart when he turned his back. He wished he didn't notice the way they seemed to lack anything to say to each other, only talking amicably when Noctis was involved in the conversation.

It was… weird. And he would have had to been an idiot not to wonder why they ended up separated during the fall of the darkness across the world. Noctis would have thought a common evil would have united them rather than pull them apart.

He needed to get to the bottom of it, so, like he always did when he needed an honest answer, he approched Prompto. He knew he would get nothing but fake platitudes and dismissal from Ignis. And Gladio didn't do conversations like the one he was planning without lashing out. Prompto never lied to him. Prompto was honest in a way a best friend was, or, he use to be ten years ago.

He sidled up next to the blond, asking to see his camera like he use to whenever they stopped at a haven for the night. Prompto looked a little shocked at the request, and. Noctis wondered if that was because no one else asked since his disappearing.

The last picture in the memory reel, the one just before a picture of himself earlier that day, was of them fighting daemons just before the crystal incident ten years ago. It further cemented in his head that something serious must have gone down to stop his old friend from doing what he use to love.

"What happened?" Noctis muttered, his voice coming out quiet only because the emotions clogged his airway.

One thing that Noctis knew hadn't changed over the years was Prompto’s ability to laugh even in the most dire situations. Even when he didn't mean it. "Buddy, you are gonna have to be a bit more specific," the now bearded blond chuckled, pointing to the world of daemons just beyond the safety of their camp. "That's kinda a loaded question. I mean, what hasn't happened at this point? Except for me getting with Cindy, but we all knew that would never happen."

"You know what I mean, Prom. Why aren't you and the guys fighting as a team anymore?"

There was a moment of silence as Prompto's eyes widened in shock, then he once again doubled over in laughter, slinging his arm around the Prince's shoulder like he use to after a long day of school when they were younger. Prompto wiped a fake tear from his eyes. "Haha! Only you would reappear after ten years in a post apocalyptic world and only ask why your best buds aren't talking anymore."

Noctis's face fell. "You aren't talking?"

"Well…" Prompto pushed away from his friend and made himself busy poking the fire with a stick as not to look his old friend in the eye, "not till you showed up," he shook his head somberly, "No."

"Why not?"

Prompto smiled sadly and continued to avoid eye contact like he use to just before delivering bad news. Like always, Noctis braced himself for the worst. "After you left, we… kinda figured out we didn't have much in common anymore.” Prompto shrugged. “Or, well, the only thing we did have in common was… you."

The words obviously left a sour taste in the usually sunny blonde's mouth, which twisted unhappily as they fell from his tongue. "And you were gone, so…"

It felt like a punch to his gut. "… what?"

"Yeah." Prompto's face twisted into something pained, like even after all the years they had spent apart, it still wasn't enough time for him to cope with the emotions this topic brought with it, once again reminding Noctis of the way his overly bubbly friend would bottle up negative emotions, never actually dealing with them because he didn’t want to ‘bring everyone down.’ Noctis use to have to pry such things from his friend to help him cope healthily with situations… but ten years had passed since he had last seen him. And last time he had seen his friend he was saving him from a torture dungeon. Had Prompto ever properly dealt with that entire situation in the ten years Noctis had been gone? For some reason, he doubted it.

"Kinda harsh reality to wake up to. Especially… me being me." He shrugged off the thought, and suddenly the smile that Noctis knew was back on his face, but this one looked… different. Older. It was more warped, like the lies he use to tell himself just weren't as strong anymore, and he had given up putting on that fake, always happy facade, but his face still reflexively grinned despite itself. It was nothing like anything Noctis ever expected to see in his old friend. It was bitter, where as the old Prompto was always sweet. "Thinking I had three really great friends, then waking up one day to realize I only ever really had one. And that one was… gone," his voice faltered, but he was still grinning that false smile into his lap, dropping the stick in the fire.

It took almost a full minute for Noctis to fully digest all of the changes he missed over those ten years and come up with a response. "Don't… don't say that! How could you say that, after all we went through together!"

"All we went through?” There was that jaded, but mockingly similar laugh from his best memories, warping them like his friend had been warped. “That was because of and for you. Do you really think Gladio or Ignis would have ever given me a second glance if you hadn't dragged me everywhere you went when we were kids?"

"I…” Noctis swallowed back the pain his heart felt as it mirrored the broken friend in front of him. “I never forced them to talk to you. They did that on their own."

"Yeah. Because the silence got awkward when you left a room.” Prompto shot back too quickly, obviously having had this argument in his head before. “And we interacted well together. We loved you, so we learned to like each other."

It was like a punch to the gut every time Prompto spoke. "I never knew."

Prompto must have noticed the pain in his voice, because his warped smile softened, and his words did too, patting Noctis’s leg consolingly. "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't either…. I think I was too naive to recognize that we had less of a friendship, and more of a mutual friend. Not until after you…” Prompto blinked back tears, and Noctis didn’t know if he should hug his old friend, or keep his distance while he worked himself out.

His answer came in the form of Prompto pulling his hand away, turning so Noctis couldn’t see him, using it to burry his face as he took steadying breaths that sounded suspiciously like sobs. “We thought you died, man. Ardyn boasted that you didn’t, but since when could we trust him about anything? We just barely escaped. Or, we thought we did. I think Ardyn let us escape. I think he knew how crippled we would be without you. He probably thought we would turn on each other, and become less of a threat to him. He was right to an extent. We did."

"… why? How did it happen?"

Prompto’s whole demeanor shifted, his hands dropping and voice going stilted and robotic. "Remember when Gladio went on that retreat to prove to himself that he was meant to be your Shield? He took that seriously.” Prompto clenched his fists in his lap, lithe shoulder muscles that he didn’t use to have rippling with the motion. “When he suspected you were dead? He blamed everyone."

Noctis winced. "Oh… that actually sounds pretty… like him."

"He blamed Ignis for being blind. For needing his protection, and causing him to be unable to follow after you. He blamed himself for not being stronger and able to protect you both.” Despite the obvious hurt and betrayal, sympathy still seeped into his voice. “It was sad to see. Some nights, back before we broke up the band, I would wake up from a… well, I would wake up, and come outside to see him staring off into nothing. Empty. Like, losing you meant he lost his purpose, and he didn't know what to do with himself. I think the only reason he didn’t off himself was because, on the off chance Arden was telling the truth, he needed to be here for you when you returned."

Noctis frowned, confused as to why Prompto was omitting one very important detail. "But he didn't blame you?"

Prompto laughed nervously and spun around, his face scrunched up in one of his uncomfortable, self depreciating smiles. "You caught that, huh? Should have known you would.” Prompto huffed and flopped backwards, looking up at the sky inorder to avoid his prince’s piercing gaze. “I wish, but no. He blamed me… a lot."

"Why? Because you were injured? Because you were tortured? He was there when we found you!"

Prompto’s eyes went empty and dead, and somehow Noctis knew he said something very wrong. "He was also there when… you found out what I am. The data. The cloning. And no matter how accepting you were at the time, with you gone? All that flew out the window."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"He…"

"He almost killed me.” Prompto interrupted with a wince. “He had his blade against my throat. Told me, like you did on the train, that I wasn't the real Prompto."

"I didn't mean—"

"I know. But I thought that… I was stupid and believed…. But I was wrong. Unlike you, he wasn't under some illusion. He was convinced the real me was killed when I fell off the train. Broke my neck or busted my head open on a rock or something. And I was just… a clone of the empire's. Sent to infiltrate, set up a diversion and bait a trap, spy… and everything. And… even though I knew he was wrong, I couldn't help but wish that Ignis hadn't stopped him. Because I was bait, wasn't I? Or, maybe I wasn't? Did you guys really come for me? Or were you looking for the crystal, and just… happened to stumble upon me?"

"…"

The silence must have answered a horrible truth that Prompto had suspected all along, because he sat up and doubled over with his hands seemingly holding himself together, wrapped desperately to his midsection.

"That's… what I thought, really.” He whispered. “Who would… I don't know why I thought I was that important. I mean, the world is falling down around me, and all I can think about is how I was meant to be an MT. How I was born in a test tube. How I… killed my father? Or did I kill myself? Will I grow up to be like him, now? How many of myself did I kill?"

"Prompto, stop,” Noctis shouted, wanting to turn off the heavy dose of reality he unleashed when he started this line of questioning.

"No. I can't,” Prompto yelled back with a sob. “This is who I am. This is what they made me to be. And I was okay with that, back when I thought I had found a family with you guys. But…"

"Prom, I am sorry!" Noctis tried again, but nothing worked, and soon, Noctis realized he was crying too.

"Not your fault.” Prompto sniffled, wiping his face with the back of his hand. “You're off trying to save the world. You have more important things to worry about than… whatever I am. I mean, am I an MT, or a person? All MT share the same dna. Then again, does that make us all Bathsithia?"

"You are Prompto.” Noctis grabbed Prompto’s shoulders and gave him a hard shake. “And more than that, you are my friend." It didn’t seem to have the desired effect.

Prompto flopped vacantly in his grip, still refusing to meet his eyes. "Hmm. Yeah. Funny, how that use to be enough to get me through the day.” Never before did Noctis ever think Prompto would sound so emotionless. “When you left, I had to find a new purpose. And, that purpose? Destroying my own legacy. Destroying as many MTs as I can track down, till no more exist. Wiping the face of the planet of that corrupt bloodline."

Noctis wished he could stop his voice from forming a new question. He wished he didn’t already suspect what the answer would be. "What will you do when you are done?"

Prompto scoffed, pushing his hands off his shoulders so he could stand and look dramatically at the shadow covered horizon. The old Prompto would have tripped over his feet in such a tense moment, making the dramatic comical by accident. This Prompto didn’t. Maybe Gladio was right to think the original Prompto died when he fell off the train. Maybe part of Prompto was still falling and nobody was there to catch him. 

"I won't stop until all of the clones are dead.” The man shuddered. When had Prompto become a man? “He went insane in the end, you know? You didn't see it, the way his mind was deteriorating.” He fisted his hair in his hands. “I don't want that to happen again. He became the way he was because he was obsessed with stopping death. What better way for him to end his legacy than by willingly taking his own life. So long as I live, so does he, right?"

Noctis closed his eyes, shaking his head. "You're going to…?" He couldn’t say anything else. Who was he to tell Prompto what to do when he was basically going to do the same thing once they reached Ardyn? How could he convince Prompto to live for him when Noctis would be dying soon anyway? One moment of telling Prompto no wouldn’t make up for all the nights Prompto had stayed up for the past ten years, convincing himself it was the right thing. Gladio and Ignis had turned away, whatever their reasoning, and Prompto was alone. So alone, and Noctis knew only too well how that felt. The least he could do was be there for Prompto now. Not turn his back on him despite the fact he disagreed with his decision wholeheartedly. 

Prompto turned and looked at him for the first time since their talk began, confusion and a little bit of relief coloring his features. "You going to try to talk me out of it?"

Noctis looked at the face that once reminded him so much of his old friend. Just memories, now. Nothing but painful memories like the photos in the camera hanging forgotten from the strap on his wrist. "… is there a chance of stopping you?"

"No."

"Then, I won't.” Noctis resolved, not liking his answer, but knowing once he was gone there would be no way to stop it anyway. “But… for what it's worth? The world is already such a dark place. It will be so much darker with you gone. You could do so much good."

Prompto smiled, that same old watery smile he use to shoot Noctis whenever he get overwhelmed with the undeserved love of his best friend. "All this time… I had been thinking of what to say if you… tried to stop me."

Noctis swiftly stood, crossing the distance and holding his still slightly shorter friend in an embrace that he wished could last an eternity. "I love you, prom,” he choked out, words thick in his mouth. “You were the first person to treat me like normal. Let me return the favor."

"Thanks.” Prompto whispered back, hands reaching up and fisting the fabric of his shirt just as desperately “I needed to hear that. Even if I feel like I don't deserve it."

"You don't deserve it,” Noctis chocked out. “You deserve so much more. I am sorry I couldn't give that to you."

"Not your fault. You were only off saving the world."


End file.
